The market for used vehicles in Costa Rica has seen five years of decline, lacking attractive incentives for imports and being at a competitive disadvantage to the new vehicles market.

The Finance Ministry released data published by La Nacion which shows that the used car segment went from having a 54% market share in 2010 to a 30% share in 2015, down 24 percentage points.Meanwhile, the paper indicated, imports of new cars rose by 35% (going from 37,866 to 51,249 units) between 2013 and 2015.

See also: "Costa Rica: Record Imports of New Cars"

Nacion.com reports that "... the credit options for bying new vehicles have increased, there are longer repayment times, lower interest rates and stability in the dollar. And as the number of new vehicles coming in increases, so does the secondary market for direct sales and cars delivered back to the agencies in exchange for a new ones."

See also: "Costa Rica: Taxable Value of Used Vehicles Under Question"

"... In 2013, the Ministry of Finance reduced, in stages, the rate of selective consumption tax for used cars that are more than three years old. But as this went tax down, the import tax value of cars rose . "

Source: Nacion.com

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